40 MPs to witness May 18 launch of India's strategic satellite EOS-09

If all goes according to plan, the Indian space agency ISRO will be launching the PSLV-C61 rocket, carrying the EOS-09 satellite at sunrise hour, Sunday, May 18th, WION has learnt. EOS-09 is a radar imaging satellite(earlier known as RISAT) that is capable of day and night imaging, can see through clouds, deliver images under all weather conditions. Carrying the 1,700kg satellite, the PSLV rocket is expected to liftoff from the first launchpad at India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, around 5:59am, Indian time.

The launch of this strategic satellite comes at a time when Nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan have agreed to a ceasefire, after having been engaged in a war-like situation through this week. However, it must be emphasized that the space launch mission taking place at this time is a mere coincidence. The PSLV rocket takes a little over a month to assemble, and it takes well over a year to build a satellite like EOS-09. At the Indian Spaceport, the preparations for this launch are said to have commenced in Mid-March, more than a month before the situation between India and Pakistan deteriorated. 

India operates multiple satellites for strategic purposes, this includes the Cartosat series of satellites, the RISAT(Radar imaging satellites) series, EMISAT etc. In addition to this, there are large communication satellites such as GSAT-7 that caters to the Indian Navy and the GSAT-7A that caters to the Indian Air Force and Strategic Forces Command. In recent years, ISRO has been following a different naming convention where all earth-imaging satellites are referred to as 'EOS', which stands for Earth Observation Satellite. It must also be emphasized that all satellites equipped with a camera can be put to defence and civilian use. In total, India has about 55 satellites in orbit that serve various purposes.

Following the April 22nd Pahalgam terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, ISRO Chief Dr. V. Narayanan had cited the need for launching 100-150 satellites to keep a constant vigil over India's 7,500kms long coastline and 15,000kms long land borders. However, it must be remembered that ISRO cannot build and launch any of these satellites without necessary approvals and budget allocations from the relevant Ministries of the Indian Government. As per the existing Government procedure, the specific Ministry or department that will be using the satellite will have to obtain approvals and allocate funds for it, before placing orders with ISRO for building and launching the rockets and satellites. For example, surveillance satellites would have to be approved and funded by the Defence Ministry, weather satellites would have to be approved and funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

WION has learnt that 40 Indian Parliamentarians, who are part of the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Science and Technology will be at the spaceport in Sriharikota to witness the launch. As per the present plan, the Parliamentarians will be visiting multiple Government establishments across two Southern Indian states Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, between 16th and 19th May. As it stands, the delegation of MPs is expected to arrive in Chennai on 15th May.